THREE-YEAR-OLDS

Top-class miler Paco Boy (by Desert Style) came up with Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Beacon in his first crop and the classic-winning miler Galileo Gold in his second but he has left Highclere Stud and will stand in Turkey from next year.

His Group 1 2000 Guineas and Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes hero will be taking up stallion duties at Tally-Ho Stud then, and although his third-crop star is a gelding, Beat The Bank looks likely to make an impact at the highest level on the track.

The bay was bred by A S Denniff of Denniff Farms and he made just 30,000gns from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket, bought by Curragh trainer Darren Bunyan. He won easily over seven furlongs at Dundalk on his debut in February and then moved to England to join the Andrew Balding stable.

Since then he has run four times with his only defeat being a disappointing effort behind Le Brivido in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. His first two starts after that, however, resulted in wins in the Listed Robinsons Mercedes-Benz Sir Henry Cecil Stakes and Group 3 Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes, by a combined margin of six lengths.

Beat The Bank puts in an accomplished performance to win the Joel Stakes - a winning @_tomstanley_ pick

Then he went to Newmarket where he put up an impressive display to beat Sir John Lavery by five lengths in the Group 2 Shadwell Joel Stakes, with Jallota another two and a quarter lengths back in third. Like his other blacktype wins, this race is over a mile.

He holds an entry in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in three weeks' time and it would be no surprise to see him produce another big effort there before going on to a notable four-year-old campaign.

Beat The Bank is a half-brother to the ill-fated stakes-placed handicapper Salt Island (by Exceed And Excel), who produced a performance of a lifetime effort to finish fourth to Muhaarar in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Ascot and earned a Timeform rating of 112.

Their dam, Tiana (by Diktat), earned her blacktype when third in the Listed Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket as a juvenile and her eight winning siblings include Mary Read (by Bahamian Bounty), the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes runner-up whose star grandson is Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner and Group 1 Commonwealth Cup runner-up Kachy (by Kyllachy).

That Tom Dascombe-trained four-year-old was fourth to Marsha in the Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket in May, was short-headed by Magical Memory in a six-furlong conditions event at Haydock in July, and was also bred by Denniff Farms.

Hill Welcome (by Most Welcome), the grandam of Beat The Bank, was only placed but her dam, Tarvie (by Swing Easy), won three times and produced both the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Stalker (by Kala Shikari) and Listed Marble Stakes heroine Regal Peace (by Known Fact).

The latter is the grandam of Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap scorer Friendly Island (by Crafty Friend), who was placed in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint, Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes, and Grade 1 Forego Stakes, and also of current two-year-old Ardenode (by Helvellyn), who has won the Listed Prix La Fleche and finished third in the Group 3 Prix du Bois at Deauville from just three starts.

Denniff Farms have a full-sister to Salt Island catalogued as Lot 927 in Book 2 of the upcoming Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and with the way her half-brother Beat The Bank won just a few minutes away from that auction house yesterday, that filly is likely to attract plenty of attention.

Top-class middle-distance horse Adlerflug is a son of In The Wings (by Sadler's Wells) and from a branch of the family of Galileo (by Sadler's Wells), Sea The Stars (by Cape Cross), and King's Best (by Kingmambo) so it is no surprise that he has emerged as a leading sire in Germany.

His 11 stakes winners include Group 1 scorer and young Gestut Ammerland stallion Ito (first foals in 2018), dual Group 1 winner Iquitos, and Group 1 Henkel-Preis der Diana heroine Lacazar who is due to run next in the Group 1 Prix de l'Opera Longines at Chantilly.

The Peter Schiergen-trained three-year-old has won four in a row this season and her classic victory against Megera and Wuheida over 11 furlongs on soft ground at Dusseldorf last month was preceded by a one and a half-length defeat of Diana Storm in a Group 3 contest over the same trip on heavy ground at Hamburg.

A full-sister to the pattern-placed Liberry Gold, Lacazar was bred by Ina Emma Zimmerman and she is the second foal out of Laey Diamond (by Dai Jin), an unraced full-sister to Liang Kay.

His four pattern wins featured the Group 2 Oppenheim-Union-Rennen, his many pattern placings included one in the Group 2 Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas), and he missed out on Group 1 placings when fourth in the Deutsches Derby and Grosser Dallmayr Preis.

Linton Bay (by Funambule), the grandam of Lacazar, was a German listed winner over seven furlongs and over a mile and her offspring also include both the pattern-placed stakes winner and blacktype producer Laeya Star (by Royal Dragon) and this year's Group 2 Diana-Trial third Litaara (by Wiener Walzer).

The next two dams – Ludhiana (by Ti Amo) and Lumaria (by Herero) – were both unraced, and other than a stakes-winning sprinter out of a half-sister to Linton Bay, those noted above represent the highlights of the first four generations of the pedigree.

Lacazar is still something of an unknown quantity and it will be fascinating to see how she gets on against the strong line-up at Chantilly.